Manafort Just Received More Bad News, Trump Lawyer Says No Pardon

On Monday morning, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was ordered to turn himself in to the authorities, and charged with multiple crimes unrelated to the Trump campaign.

Almost as soon as Manafort’s indictment was announced, people began wondering if President Donald Trump would offer him a pardon.

It appears that option isn’t even being considered. One of Trump’s lawyers, Ty Cobb, stated quite plainly that a pardon for Manafort wasn’t something that Trump would be doing, The Washington Post reported.

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“No, no, no. That’s never come up and won’t come up,” Cobb explained in response to questions about a pardon.

Cobb also stressed that Trump wasn’t going to attempt to remove special counsel Robert Mueller — despite rampant speculation that he would do so.

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“Nothing about today’s events alters anything related to our engagement with the special counsel, with whom we continue to cooperate,” Cobb explained.

“There are no discussions and there is no consideration being given to terminating Mueller,” he added.

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The Huffington Post reported Tuesday that when Trump took questions from the press before a meeting about taxes, he refused to answer a question about whether he would pardon Manafort.

It is unclear if Trump just didn’t want to talk about the indictment — preferring to stay on message about taxes — or if he actually is considering pardoning Manafort despite what Cobb said.

The New York Times noted Monday that at the daily press briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stated that she hadn’t talked with Trump about whether he would pardon Manafort.

“I haven’t had a conversation with the president about pardons or pardoning individuals,” she stated.

Trump certainly would take the wind out of a lot of liberals’ sails by refusing to pardon Manafort. Not pardoning him would send a powerful signal that Trump really has nothing to hide, and he isn’t afraid of Manafort saying something against him.

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It also helps that Manafort’s crimes have nothing to do with the Trump campaign, and were committed before Trump even considered running for office.

For now, all the excitement over Mueller’s investigation seems to have died down as people realize that Monday’s bit of excitement isn’t going to lead to any drastic changes immediately.